Nitrogen versus carbon use in prokaryotic genomes and proteomes

Abstract

There is growing recognition that the elemental composition of genomes and proteins can be related to resource limitation. We examine the possibility that the elemental composition of nucleic acids and the amino acids (and proteins) they encode are correlated. We report a positive association between the stoichiometric ratio of N/C content of individual amino acids and their codons. Potentially, this is an outcome of chemical interactions between amino acids and anticodons that influenced the evolution of the genetic code. We also find a strong, positive relationship between N/C values of whole genomes and proteomes, across 94 prokaryotic species. This relationship is part of a spectrum in nitrogen versus carbon use across genomes and proteomes, which is correlated with genomic GC content. GC content is correlated positively with average nitrogen use, and negatively with average carbon use, across both genomes and proteomes.